Before a child enters into kindergarten there is a large list of things they must know. Whether they learn it in preschool or at home it doesn’t matter, as long as they know how to count, tell colors, write their name, differentiate between letters and be accepting to social interaction.

We all know that a child does not learn by being forced into a chair and studying until their eyes cross, they learn through play, through touch and smell. They learn with all their senses, so outdoor play is tantamount to their success but when you live in places where the weather does not always permit outdoor play, there is another option.

Games like the Moo and Baa game by Haba are a great way to help your child learn color, shapes and memory. It is a fun game that is easy for a three year old to understand. When my daughters and I sat down and played we separated the wooden animals into color, then mixed them up and put them into the separate pouches. The girls then had to pull (without looking) the animals out one by one and try to beat the other child by putting them on the color coordinated card and get ALL the animals in the barn first.

My 3 and 4 year old really enjoyed it, and the colors Red and White now have new meaning to them. It’s a fun way to teach them color coordination and tactile skills while they are putting the matching animal on its mat.

BUY IT : If you are looking for a fun game for children between the ages of 3 and 5, you can find Moo and Baa game by Haba at Maukilo http://www.maukilo.com/moo-and-baa-game-brightly-colored-tactile-game.html

WIN IT : Want to win a set for your stocking stuffer?  Here’s your chance to enter this giveaway. One lucky reader will get a set of the Haba Moo & Baa game.

• One Mandatory Entry- go visit our kind sponsor, http://www.maukilo.com/ and pick one item you would love to include in your Xmas shopping list.
• One Additional Entry- if you’re our subscriber! Easy! If you’re not a subscriber, click here to subscribe!
• Two Additional Entries- follow us on twitter and tweet this giveaway “Win HABA Moo & Baa Game at Parentreviewers.com” with a link back to this post once a day. Leave an additional comment including your twitter id and the tweet url. You can tweet on a daily basis.
• Three Additional Entries- Share on Facebook about this great giveaway! It can be done on a daily basis too! Please leave your FB id.
• Giveaway is open to US  shipping addresses only.
• Giveaway ends on December 1st, 2010. and a winner will be picked using Random.org. We will not be emailing winners, so please make sure you subscribe to our feed or check back here for the winner announcement post.

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Nancy Drew: Secrets Can Kill Remastered is a remake of the 1998 version of the game under the same title. This game celebrates the 80th anniversary of Nancy Drew’s book which debuted in 1930.

Meant for ages 10 up and available on PC as well as Mac, Secrets Can Kill Remastered is a point and click game which features Nancy Drew going back to school to investigate a murder. The game commences with the option to select the level of difficulty from “Junior” to “Senior”. The teen sleuth makes a visit to her Aunt Eloise in Florida and was asked to help solve the murder of a student who was mysteriously murdered the night before at the local high school. Nancy goes undercover as a transfer student to get to the bottom of things before the killer has a chance to strike again.

For parents who are worried about this game featuring a murder in the plot, have no fear as there are no gory scenes involved. Though there are some spooky music and scary sounds, the fear factor was pretty mild to me. My only caution to parents is to be aware that the game does make reference to drugs.

Comparing my earlier experience with Nancy Drew’s Trail of The Twister, I am pleased to see that there are no petty chores required to be done by our young sleuth. Instead, Nancy Drew gets to solve a number of pretty easy and straightforward puzzles in the game. This of course, is the point of view of an adult. I honestly doubt my 10 year old son have the capability to solve these puzzles by himself as some of the clues are harder to decipher, for example, the coded message which involved 18 steps. Thus, I would recommend this game for older kids.

Location wise, it was somewhat limited as the bulk of the game was played in the local high school, Maxine’s diner or Aunt Loise’s home. As for the story,  it is rather short but there are plenty of interesting turns to keep you on your toes. One thing’s for sure, you will definitely be surprised by the ending. It was absolutely brilliant how the mystery was solved. I don’t want to divulge more but trust me when I say it’s worth all your patience and effort *winks*.

As far as visual was concerned, I thought that HER Interactive did a wonderful job. This remastered edition of the game had beautiful graphics of the characters and environment. On top of that, the enhanced soundtrack was great and the voiceover was equally impressive.

Overall, I would recommend it to older kids of age 12 and above and for fans of Nancy Drew games, this is definitely a classic you would want to have in your collection.

BUY IT : Nancy Drew: Secrets Can Kill Remastered is available now at Target and Wal-Mart stores for a suggested retail price of $19.99. The game is also available to order online, or for those who can’t wait, as a digital download exclusively at www.HerInteractive.com. The game is a dual format disc, playable on both Windows PCs and Apple Mac computers. Secrets Can Kill Remastered is rated E10+ with Violence, Drug Reference.

WIN IT : Thanks to the good folks at www.HerInteractive.com, we are giving away a copy of Nancy Drew’s Secrets Can Kill Remastered DVD to a lucky reader. Here’s how you can enter for a chance to win:

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Did you know that Nancy Drew debuted in 1930? I practically grew up with Nancy Drew stories in my teen but NOOOOO, I am NOT THAT OLD.  Today, Nancy Drew is still going strong from the popular book series to interactive gaming.  I was excited when Her Interactive offered me the chance to review Nancy Drew : Trail of The Twister game.

Nancy Drew goes undercover when a team of storm-chasing researchers is mysteriously plagued by a number of equipment failures. Since this Oklahoma research team is competing for a $100 million prize to discover a formula to predict tornado touchdowns, it has raised suspicions amongst them that this was not just pure bad luck. Was someone trying to sabotage them? Nancy Drew’s role was to get to the bottom of it.

The game starts with an option to choose either “Junior” or “Senior” Detective which sets the level of difficulty. Nancy arrives at the farm research base to find out that she has just missed the team. However, she is presented with a list of mundane tasks like file papers and folders, take a quiz about tornado, fix an LCD display in a car, shop for stuff at a corner store, etc. And that’s just the start! Arguably, these tasks are given to her because she is supposedly a replacement intern but I would have loved to see her spending less time doing these simple chores.

As we move along, we get to meet Scott Varnell, the head of the research team and his members, Debbie, Chase and Frosty. Another important character in this game is Pa, the owner of the general store. Each character has some kind of secret which makes them a possible suspect. But who is the real culprit? That’s what you need to find out yourself.

I haven’t reviewed other Nancy Drew games but I have to say Trail of The Twister focuses a lot on puzzles to help solve the mystery. Don’t get me wrong, I love these puzzles. They actually made the game more challenging and fun. What I hated was the driving part in the game. The loose controls made it pretty hard to drive….soooo difficult that I actually crashed six times!!!  Oh and did I mention the part about catching mice over and over and over again *rolls eyes*. So, other than these frustrating parts, I have no complains *grins*. If you’re one of those people who do not like to start all over again after making a “fatal” mistake, you’ll be happy to know that Trail of The Twister automatically returns you to the point before that mistake. 

Overall, I thought that the voice quality was superb and the character animation as well as the background looked great. I think one has to understand that  Trail of The Twister is meant for those age 10 to adult, thus, explains the reason for its simple storyline. Trail of the Twister comes in two discs and is also the first Nancy Drew game to support the Mac OS.If you are a Nancy Drew fan, this is definitely one game worth investigating (pardon the pun).

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I just learned a new Japanese word today – Jishaku (pronounced Jee-Shah-Koo), which means magnet. Ok, I’m not exactly polishing up my Japanese but rather having fun with this new game called Jishaku, which was created by Florida based Steve Velte.

So, what exactly is the Jishaku game? An excerpt from their website explains it best:

Jishaku^TM is a patent-pending, portable strategy game like chess or checkers that can be played anywhere – the kitchen or the beach. But unlike chess, there is an element of surprise when the magnets jump out of position, without warning. Surprise, then laughs, follow as two or more players try to beat force fields with strategic thinking plus careful and precise handling of the game’s magnetic stones. The unpredictability of Jishaku turns any get-together into a party!

How is it played? Each game comes with 18 polished magnetic stones, a storage  pouch and a novel foam insert. There are several variations of the game but the most popular is “I’m Out”. The goal of the game is to place magnets onto the game base – without letting any magnets connect. Because all magnets have North and South poles, you need to study the effects of the magnets on the stones around it. Some will attract while others will repel. Thus, it not only matters where you place your stones, how you place each one is equally important. The first person to run out of magnets will be declared as the winner. You can also check out the rules of the game here.

BUY IT : The Jishaku Game is intended for 2 players or more and ideal for children of age 8 and above. It is also perfect as a family game when you are going on road trips or to be played inflight as it does not take up a lot of space and it’s highly portable. Parent Reviewers readers can get 10% off from now until 30th September 2008 using Promo Code QIOHXO when you purchase Jishaku at www.playjishaku.com

Our Parent Reviewers had as much fun playing The Jishaku as their kids. Check out the rave reviews here:

Cass Knits – You know, it’s just as fun with 4 players as with 2. Except we were a little bit mean. We just told them the object of the game was to get rid of your stones. We didn’t tell them what to expect. And so we won, nyuck, nyuck, nyuck. I can foresee the whole family having fun with this game, but not until I go back to NMB and get some more stones. Like most games, there just aren’t enough pieces for all the folks who want to play. That’s ok. The stones are pretty cheap.

Accidental Mommies – This is a fun game that you can play virtually anywhere and it doesn’t take a lot of time so it is very versatile. You can play with a wide age range and it can even be played on your lap, so you don’t need a lot of room. We see this game being played at our family gatherings for many years to come because everyone will say “just one more time!”.

Laura Williams’ Musings – The game though was a hit with our 8 year old and 9 year old sons.  They thought it was fun to watch their magnets catch the others then try to get rid of them all again. So I’m sure they’ll want to play it again some more.

The Pond – The first thing I think of when I hear the word strategy, is that the game is going to be hard. This game is not hard and in fact is geared towards everyone beginning at age 8. The game has small parts so you really need to keep it out of the hands and mouths of babes.

Be sure you aren’t drinking any beverages while playing this game. You will surely spew your mouthful of drink the first time the stones start jumping. It is crazy to see how the magnetic pull effects each other’s stones.

Book Room Reviews – We loved this new game! I was screaming each time my magnets clicked together. There is a fun video I posted below that shows you exactly what I’m talking about. This game is for ages 8 and up, and can be purchased here for $19.95. Check it out, you will be glad you did! Great family fun!

Val’s Views – Our family really enjoyed Jishaku. I recommend the game highly. It’s not electronic, so you won’t constantly need to put batteries in it. It’s not violent, so parents won’t hesitate to let their children play it. It’s small and portable, so it doesn’t require a lot of room to play and would travel nicely.

Freaky Frugalite – It’s a very fun game, and it gets the kids interacting. I don’t know about you, but playing video games together is NOT kids interacting. So I love this game.

I recommend this game. It’s educational, teaches motor skills (and patience), teaches the concept of magnetism and the laws of attraction and repulsion, and encourages interactivity with the other players. It’s also very easy and simple enough for young kids to play with older kids and adults. And when the kids are not playing the actual game, they like to fool around with the magnets, too.

Ang’s Chicken Coop – Oh my did we laugh! And we discovered that the magnetic stones make great earrings and hair ties, too. Oh, and the kids did play the game the rest of the weekend. They loved it, too! They had so much fun trying to get rid of their stones first. Its great to find a game that is so enjoyable and can be played by all of us.

Kristen McLane -  Jishaku proved to be the ultimate distraction for keeping my kids entertained while I tended to last minute packing details. This simple looking game has the ability to drive you bonkers – in a good way.

On a final note, since a picture speaks a thousand words, check out the video of her kids enjoying the Jishaku, posted by our Parent Reviewer From Dates To Diapers And Beyond.